SACRAMENTS.
In all religions there exist certain ceremonials, or rites, which are
regarded as of vital importance by the believers in the religion, and
which are held to confer certain benefits on those taking part in them.
The word Sacrament, or some equivalent term, has been applied to these
ceremonials, and they all have the same character. Little exact
exposition has been given as to their nature and meaning, but this is
another of the subjects explained of old in the Lesser Mysteries.
The peculiar characteristic of a Sacrament resides in two of its
properties. First, there is the exoteric ceremony, which is a pictorial
allegory, a representation of something by actions and materials--not a
verbal allegory, a teaching given in words, conveying a truth; but an
acted representation, certain definite material things used in a
particular way. The object in choosing these materials, and aimed at in
the ceremonies by which their manipulation is accompanied, is to
represent, as in a picture, some truth which it is desired to impress
upon the minds of the people present. That is the first and obvious
property of a Sacrament, differentiating it from other forms of worship
and meditation. It appeals to those who without this imagery would fail
to catch a subtle truth, and shows to them in a vivid and graphic form
the truth which otherwise would escape them. Every Sacrament, when it is
studied, should be taken first from this standpoint, that it is a
pictorial allegory; the essential things to be studied will therefore
be: the material objects which enter into the allegory, the method in
which they are employed, and the meaning which the whole is intended to
convey.
The second characteristic property of a Sacrament belongs to the facts
of the invisible worlds, and is studied by occult science. The person
who officiates in the Sacrament should possess this knowledge, as much,
though not all, of the operative power of the Sacrament depends on the
knowledge of the officiator. A Sacrament links the material world with
the subtle and invisible regions to which that world is related; it is a
link between the visible and the invisible. And it is not only a link
between this world and other worlds, but it is also a method by which
the energies of the invisible world are transmuted into action in the
physical; an actual method of changing energies of one kind into
energies of another, as literally as in the galvanic cell chemical
energies are changed into electrical. The essence of all energies is one
and the same, whether in the visible or invisible worlds; but the
energies differ according to the grades of matter through which they
manifest. A Sacrament serves as a kind of crucible in which spiritual
alchemy takes place. An energy placed in this crucible and subjected to
certain manipulations comes forth different in expression. Thus an
energy of a subtle kind, belonging to one of the higher regions of the
universe, may be brought into direct relation with people living in the
physical world, and may be made to affect them in the physical world as
well as in its own realm; the Sacrament forms the last bridge from the
invisible to the visible, and enables the energies to be directly
applied to those who fulfil the necessary conditions and who take part
in the Sacrament.
The Sacraments of the Christian Church lost much of their dignity and of
the recognition of their occult power among those who separated from the
Roman Catholic Church at the time of the "Reformation." The previous
separation between the East and the West, leaving the Greek Orthodox
Church on the one side and the Roman Church on the other, in no way
affected belief in the Sacraments. They remained in both great
communities as the recognised links between the seen and the unseen, and
sanctified the life of the believer from cradle to grave. The Seven
Sacraments of Christianity cover the whole of life, from the welcome of
Baptism to the farewell of Extreme Unction. They were established by
Occultists, by men who knew the invisible worlds; and the materials
used, the words spoken, the signs made, were all deliberately chosen and
arranged with a view to bringing about certain results.
At the time of the Reformation, the seceding Churches, which threw off
the yoke of Rome, were not led by Occultists, but by ordinary men of the
world, some good and some bad, but all profoundly ignorant of the facts
of the invisible worlds, and conscious only of the outer shell of
Christianity, its literal dogmas and exoteric worship. The consequence
of this was that the Sacraments lost their supreme place in Christian
worship, and in most Protestant communities were reduced to two, Baptism
and the Eucharist. The sacramental nature of the others was not
explicitly denied in the most important of the seceding Churches, but
the two were set apart from the five, as of universal obligation, of
which every member of the Church must partake in order to be recognised
as a full member.
The general definition of a Sacrament is given quite accurately, save
for the superfluous words, "ordained by Christ Himself," in the
Catechism of the Church of England, and even these words might be
retained if the mystic meaning be given to the word "Christ." A
Sacrament is there said to be: "An outward and visible sign of an inward
and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ Himself, as a
means whereby we receive the same and a pledge to assure us thereof."
In this definition we find laid down the two distinguishing
characteristics of a Sacrament as given above. The "outward and visible
sign" is the pictorial allegory, and the phrase, the "means whereby we
receive the" "inward and spiritual grace" covers the second property.
This last phrase should be carefully noted by those members of
Protestant Churches who regard Sacraments as mere external forms and
outer ceremonies. For it distinctly alleges that the Sacrament is really
a means whereby the grace is conveyed, and thus implies that without it
the grace does not pass in the same fashion from the spiritual to the
physical world. It is the distinct recognition of a Sacrament in its
second aspect, as a means whereby spiritual powers are brought into
activity on earth.
In order to understand a Sacrament, it is necessary that we should
definitely recognise the existence of an occult, or hidden, side of
Nature; this is spoken of as the life-side of Nature, the
consciousness-side, more accurately the mind _in_ Nature. Underlying all
sacramental action there is the belief that the invisible world
exercises a potent influence over the visible, and to understand a
Sacrament we must understand something of the invisible Intelligences
who administer Nature. We have seen in studying the doctrine of the
Trinity that Spirit is manifested as the triple Self, and that as the
Field for His manifestation there is Matter, the form-side of Nature,
often regarded, and rightly, as Nature herself. We have to study both
these aspects, the side of life and that of form, in order to understand
a Sacrament.
Stretching between the Trinity and humanity are many grades and
hierarchies of invisible beings; the highest of these are the seven
Spirits of God, the seven Fires, or Flames, that are before the throne
of God.[328] Each of these stands at the head of a vast host of
Intelligences, all of whom share His nature and act under His direction;
these are themselves graded, and are the Thrones, Powers, Princes,
Dominations, Archangels, Angels, of whom mention is found in the
writings of the Christian Fathers, who were versed in the Mysteries.
Thus there are seven great hosts of these Beings, and they represent in
their intelligence the divine Mind in Nature. They are found in all
regions, and they ensoul the energies of Nature. From the standpoint of
occultism there is no dead force and no dead matter. Force and matter
alike are living and active, and an energy or a group of energies is the
veil of an Intelligence, of a Consciousness, who has that energy as his
outer expression, and the matter in which that energy moves yields a
form which he guides or ensouls. Unless a man can thus look at Nature
all esoteric teaching must remain for him a sealed book. Without these
angelic Lives, these countless invisible Intelligences, these
Consciousnesses which ensoul the force and matter[329] which is Nature,
Nature herself would not only remain unintelligible, but she would be
out of relation alike to the divine Life that moves within and around
her, and to the human lives that are developing in her midst. These
innumerable Angels link the worlds together; they are themselves
evolving while helping the evolution of beings lower than themselves,
and a new light is shed on evolution when we see that men form grades in
these hierarchies of intelligent beings. These angels are the "sons of
God" of an earlier birth than ours, who "shouted for joy"[330] when the
foundations of the earth were laid amid the choiring of the Morning
Stars.
Others beings are below us in evolution--animals, plants, minerals, and
elemental lives--as the Angels are above us; and as we thus study, a
conception dawns upon us of a vast Wheel of Life, of numberless
existences, inter-related and necessary each to each, man as a living
Intelligence, as a self-conscious being, having his own place in this
Wheel. The Wheel is ever turning by the divine Will, and the living
Intelligences who form it learn to co-operate with that Will, and if in
the action of those Intelligences there is any break or gap due to
neglect or opposition, then the Wheel drags, turning slowly, and the
chariot of the evolution of the worlds goes but heavily upon its way.
These numberless Lives, above and below man, come into touch with human
consciousness in very definite ways, and among these ways are sounds and
colours. Each sound has a form in the invisible world, and combinations
of sounds create complicated shapes.[331] In the subtle matter of those
worlds all sounds are accompanied by colours, so that they give rise to
many-hued shapes, in many cases exceedingly beautiful. The vibrations
set up in the visible world when a note is sounded set up vibrations in
the worlds invisible, each one with its own specific character, and
capable of producing certain effects. In communicating with the
sub-human Intelligences connected with the lower invisible world and
with the physical, and in controlling and directing these, sounds must
be used fitted to bring about the desired results, as language made up
of definite sounds is used here. And in communicating with the higher
Intelligences certain sounds are useful, to create a harmonious
atmosphere, suitable for their activities, and to make our own subtle
bodies receptive of their influences.
This effect on the subtle bodies is a most important part of the occult
use of sounds. These bodies, like the physical, are in constant
vibratory motion, the vibrations changing with every thought or desire.
These changing irregular vibrations offer an obstacle to any fresh
vibration coming from outside, and, in order to render the bodies
susceptible to the higher influences, sounds are used which reduce the
irregular vibrations to a steady rhythm, like in its nature to the
rhythm of the Intelligence sought to be reached. The object of all
often-repeated sentences is to effect this, as a musician sounds the
same note over and over again, until all the instruments are in tune.
The subtle bodies must be tuned to the note of the Being sought, if his
influence is to find free way through the nature of the worshipper, and
this was ever done of old by the use of sounds. Hence, music has ever
formed an integral part of worship, and certain definite cadences have
been preserved with care, handed on from age to age.
In every religion there exist sounds of a peculiar character, called
"Words of Power," consisting of sentences in a particular language
chanted in a particular way; each religion possesses a stock of such
sentences, special successions of sounds, now very generally called
"mantras," that being the name given to them in the East, where the
science of mantras has been much studied and elaborated. It is not
necessary that a mantra--a succession of sounds arranged in a particular
manner to bring about a definite result--should be in any one particular
language. Any language can be used for the purpose, though some are more
suitable than others, provided that the person who makes the mantra
possesses the requisite occult knowledge. There are hundreds of mantras
in the Samskrit tongue, made by Occultists of the past, who were
familiar with the laws of the invisible worlds. These have been handed
down from generation to generation, definite words in a definite order
chanted in a definite way. The effect of the chanting is to create
vibrations, hence forms, in the physical and super-physical worlds, and
according to the knowledge and purity of the singer will be the worlds
his song is able to affect If his knowledge be wide and deep, if his
will be strong and his heart pure, there is scarcely any limit to the
powers he may exercise in using some of these ancient mantras.
As said, it is not necessary that any one particular language should be
used. They may be in Samskrit, or in any one of the languages of the
world, in which men of knowledge have put them together.
This is the reason why, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Latin language
is always used in important acts of worship. It is not used as a dead
language here, a tongue "not understanded of the people," but as a
living force in the invisible worlds. It is not used to hide knowledge
from the people, but in order that certain vibrations may be set up in
the invisible worlds which cannot be set up in the ordinary languages of
Europe, unless a great Occultist should compose in them the necessary
successions of sounds. To translate a mantra is to change it from a
"Word of Power" into an ordinary sentence; the sounds being changed,
other sound-forms are created.
Some of the arrangements of Latin words, with the music wedded to them
in Christian worship, cause the most marked effects in the
supra-physical worlds, and any one who is at all sensitive will be
conscious of peculiar effects caused by the chanting of some of the most
sacred sentences, especially in the Mass. Vibratory effects may be felt
by any one who will sit quiet and receptive as some of these sentences
are uttered by priest or choristers. And at the same time effects are
caused in the higher worlds directly affecting the subtle bodies of the
worshippers in the way above described, and also appealing to the
Intelligences in those worlds with a meaning as definite as the words
addressed by one person to another on the physical plane, whether as
prayer or, in some cases, as command. The sounds, causing active
flashing forms, rise through the worlds, affecting the consciousness of
the Intelligences residing in them, and bringing some of them to render
the definite services required by those who are taking part in the
church office.
Such mantras form an essential part of every Sacrament.
The next essential part of the Sacrament, in its outward and visible
form, are certain gestures. These are called Signs, or Seals, or
Sigils--the three words meaning the same thing in a Sacrament. Each sign
has its own particular meaning, and marks the direction imposed on the
invisible forces with which the celebrant is dealing, whether those
forces be his own or poured through him. In any case, they are needed to
bring about the desired result, and they are an essential portion of the
sacramental rite. Such a sign is called a "Sign of Power," as the mantra
is a "Word of Power."
It is interesting to read in occult works of the past references to
these facts, true then as now, true now as then. In the Egyptian _Book
of the Dead_ is described the _post-mortem_ journey of the Soul, and we
read how he is stopped and challenged at various stages of that journey.
He is stopped and challenged by the Guardians of the Gate of each
successive world, and the Soul cannot pass through the Gate and go on
his way unless he knows two things: he must pronounce a word, the Word
of Power: he must make a sign, the Sign of Power. When that Word is
spoken, when that Sign is given, the bars of the Gate fall down, and
the Guardians stand aside to let the Soul pass through. A similar
account is given in the great mystic Christian Gospel, the _Pistis
Sophia_, before mentioned.[332] Here the passage through the worlds is
not of a Soul set free from the body by death, but of one who has
voluntarily left it in the course of Initiation. There are great Powers,
the Powers of Nature, that bar his way, and till the Initiate gives the
Word and the Sign, they will not allow him to pass through the portals
of their realms. This double knowledge, then, was necessary--to speak
the Word of Power, to make the Sign of Power. Without these progress was
blocked, and without these a Sacrament is no Sacrament.
Further, in all Sacraments some physical material is used, or should be
used.[333] This is ever a symbol of that which is to be gained by the
Sacrament, and points to the nature of the "inward and spiritual grace"
received through it. This is also the material means of conveying the
grace, not symbolically, but actually, and a subtle change in this
material adapts it for high ends.
Now a physical object consists of the solid, liquid, and gaseous
particles into which a chemist would resolve it by analysis, and further
of ether, which interpenetrates the grosser stuffs. In this ether play
the magnetic energies. It is further connected with counterparts of
subtle matter, in which play energies subtler than the magnetic, but
like them in nature and more powerful.
When such an object is magnetised a change is effected in the ethereal
portion, the wave-motions are altered and systematised, and made to
follow the wave-motions of the ether of the magnetiser; it thus comes to
share his nature, and the denser particles of the object, played on by
the ether, slowly change their rates of vibration. If the magnetiser has
the power of affecting the subtler counterparts also he makes them
similarly vibrate in assonance with his own.
This is the secret of magnetic cures: the irregular vibrations of the
diseased person are so worked on as to accord with the regular
vibrations of the healthy operator, as definitely as an irregularly
swinging object may be made to swing regularly by repeated and timed
blows. A doctor will magnetise water and cure his patient therewith. He
will magnetise a cloth, and the cloth, laid on the seat of pain, will
heal. He will use a powerful magnet, or a current from a galvanic cell,
and restore energy to a nerve. In all cases the ether is thrown into
motion, and by this the denser physical particles are affected.
A similar result accrues when the materials used in a Sacrament are
acted on by the Word of Power and the Sign of Power. Magnetic changes
are caused in the ether of the physical substance, and the subtle
counterparts are affected according to the knowledge, purity, and
devotion of the celebrant who magnetises--or, in the religious term,
consecrates--it. Further, the Word and the Sign of Power summon to the
celebration the Angels specially concerned with the materials used and
the nature of the act performed, and they lend their powerful aid,
pouring their own magnetic energies into the subtle counterparts, and
even into the physical ether, thus reinforcing the energies of the
celebrant. No one who knows anything of the powers of magnetism can
doubt the possibility of the changes in material objects thus indicated.
And if a man of science, who may have no faith in the unseen, has the
power to so impregnate water with his own vital energy that it cures a
physical disease, why should power of a loftier, though _similar_,
nature be denied to those of saintly life, of noble character, of
knowledge of the invisible? Those who are able to sense the higher forms
of magnetism know very well that consecrated objects vary much in their
power, and that the magnetic difference is due to the varying knowledge,
purity, and spirituality of the priest who consecrates them. Some deny
all vital magnetism, and would reject alike the holy water of religion
and the magnetised water of medical science. They are consistent, but
ignorant. But those who admit the utility of the one, and laugh at the
other, show themselves to be not wise but prejudiced, not learned but
one-sided, and prove that their want of belief in religion biases their
intelligence, predisposing them to reject from the hand of religion that
which they accept from the hand of science. A little will be added to
this with regard to "sacred objects" generally in Chapter XIV.
We thus see that the outer part of the Sacrament is of very great
importance. Real changes are made in the materials used. They are made
the vehicles of energies higher than those which naturally belong to
them; persons approaching them, touching them, will have their own
etheric and subtle bodies affected by their potent magnetism, and will
be brought into a condition very receptive of higher influences, being
tuned into accord with the lofty Beings connected with the Word and the
Sign used in consecration; Beings belonging to the invisible world will
be present during the sacramental rite, pouring out their benign and
gracious influences; and thus all who are worthy participants in the
ceremony--sufficiently pure and devoted to be tuned by the vibrations
caused--will find their emotions purified and stimulated, their
spirituality quickened, and their hearts filled with peace, by coming
into such close touch with the unseen realities.